PAC-10/BIG-12 Bias in the Polls

Those who know me best will be surprised that I joined a forum for women (I usually have a difficult time relating to others of my sex–four generations of women in my family have been only daughters, and there were no other girls close to my age where I lived growing up–it was play football and Army with my brothers and their friends, or be alone and bored), but my current ongoing unemployment status indicates that I should network more, thus the femi-forum.

Still, that doesn’t mean I’m going all lib on y’all–on the contrary, I just started a discussion group to talk football! Here’s my intro–those “soccer moms” don’t know what they got into when they accepted me, do they? 😀

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WHAT IS UP WITH THE SPORTSWRITERS AND COACHES OF AMERICA?!?

Five of the top ten teams this week are from the SEC:

Georgia (GO DAWGS!) is #3

The Florida Philistines are #4

LSU (love the “Geaux Tigers” thing!) is #6

‘Bama is #9, and

Auburn (my granddaddy’s alma mater, and the team I always pull for as long as an Auburn win doesn’t hurt UGa) is #10.

Georgia and Auburn are undefeated, yet they have been knocked DOWN in the polls since the start of the season. For the DAWGS, it’s happened TWICE–once in favor of a team from the PAC-10, the other for a team from the Big 12.

Why is what is unarguably the best conference in the nation, the Southeastern Conference, with collectively the toughest schedule in the country (all these good teams have to play each other–at least those that are in the same division), considered a red-headed stepchild in the minds of those “intelligentsia” who decide the rankings and are put down in favor of less competitive teams from the “pretty boy” PAC-10 and the lopsided Big 12 (actually, call it the “Big 2–Texas and Oklahoma–and all those other guys”)?

Georgia’s Knowshon Moreno (he’s only a sophomore!) makes a vault over a Central Michigan defender two weeks ago that would have made Bela Karolyi sit up and take notice, and ESPN doesn’t even put it on SportsCenter until they’ve received three days of requests and protests from incredulous fans!!!! What’s up with that???? See for yourself:

Granted, Auburn’s 3-2 win over Mississippi State was pug-ugly (did someone forget to tell the teams that 3-2 is a baseball score?), and Georgia coach Mark Richt is too decent a guy to run up a score just because he can (unlike some others we know–I won’t name names, but Steve Spurrier, call your office), but that is no reason to move a team down in the rankings. Last time I checked, there was no slot in the USA/AP or the BCS rankings for “pretty” wins. It’s just win or lose. That’s it. That’s all that should matter.

OK, I’ve said my piece and counted to three. Now it’s your turn. How do you feel about the rankings so far this season?